Emergency power restoration company unveils new $3-million Stevensville facility

The people of Fort Erie are “somewhat familiar with disasters,” said Mayor Wayne Redekop at an event Tuesday that officially welcomed a new business to town, one that provides emergency power restoration services caused by severe weather.

Holland Power Services unveiled its new 13,000-square-foot facility on Winger Road in Stevensville to a crowd of invited guests, including representatives from the municipal, regional, provincial, and federal governments.

The new location represents at $3-million investment.

Holland Power Services has a fleet of over 425 line trucks with locations in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Maine, and currently has 120 full-time employees and 1,500 casual employees available for on-call storm restoration.

“You can see the amount of work that’s going to take place” out of the Stevensville depot, said Redekop, pointing to a lot full of trucks next to the new building.

Redekop listed a number of severe weather events that affected Fort Erie; the Halloween storm of 2019, Christmas 2022, and the freak October 2006 storm.

There’s also the “granddaddy of them all,” the Blizzard of 1977, which killed more than two dozen people, most of them in Western New York.

Redekop said the Stevensville location is ideal because it will be convenient for crews to be dispatched to other places in the Niagara community.

“You’ll have a great opportunity to do a lot of work outside this area, but also locally,” said Redekop.

In an interview with Fort Erie Radio at Tuesday’s event, Holland Power Services president Ray Robinson said his company’s head office is located in New Brunswick, and that setting up in Niagara is part of their plans to grow.

“As we grow, we’re trying to expand our geographic foot print,” said Robinson.

In March 2022, the company purchased about six acres of vacant industrial land at 2626 Winger Road in Stevensville. Part of the appeal is the site’s close proximity to the U.S. border.

They work with utilities such as Alectra, Hydro One, Ottawa Hydro, and many others, including Canadian Niagara Power, which serves Fort Erie and Port Colborne.

Holland crews were on hand during the 2022 Christmas storm as well.

Robinson said no year is the same as the exact same as the next one, but estimated that his staff are dispatched for 100 to 140 storm days every year.

“It’s all subject to Mother Nature, of course,” he told Fort Erie Radio, adding that it’s typical for line workers to work 16-hour days during severe events.

He also said workers were based out of a construction trailer at the Stevensville site before the new building was completed.

Holland Power Services is a highly-valued and welcome addition to Fort Erie’s business community, said Caralee Grummett, the Town’s economic development manager in a news release.

“We would like to graciously thank Holland Power Services for their investment and commitment to the local economy of Fort Erie,” she said.

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